Lettering in FIRST

[Al Skierkiewicz]

R.J.,
Many schools allow letters for glee club, student congress, orchestra, and school newspaper why not robotics? A wise man once told me that a school that does not celebrate it's students is not a school. A letter is not a diploma, it is a sign that you were a participant in an extracurricular activity and allows you the pride to wear a sign of your participation. And for my money, students have a better chance of starting on a career or getting a scholarship as a direct result of robotics than a sport.
If your administrators would like to discuss this, I am always open. To start have them contact me via Chief Delphi, there is a choice for PM or email and I will return their message. Fourteen students or just one, need to be recognized.

[65_Xero_Huskie]

Our High School considers this to be a Varsity Sport.
With all the long hours you put into it and all of the things you have to do to get prepared it should be counted as.
Plus you play in a competition with other schools. Isnt that what your basketball team does?

[Cow Bell Solo]

We had letters our first year being involved in robotics. Some requierments are putting forth so many hours, going to regional, participating in other events(going to elementry, sponsors etc), doing beyond stuff(t-shirts, buttons, website, etc.)

[Debbie]

Team 1023, Bedford Express, is working on getting Varsity Letters. We have submitted a proposal, submitted a persuasive essay, made a video presentation and are hopeful we will have it worked out soon. (Still keeping our fingers crossed for this year's seniors, as they are amazing!) In the meantime, thanks to all the teams for posting on all of the different threads. You have greatly helped our efforts. It is hard to know where to post this with so many great threads! We also made a slideshow/video of why FIRST members should get a varsity letter. Feel free to use it if it helps you. If you need a better copy than youtubes copy, just let me know.
-Debbie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8-CVg0QAyg

[Gary B.]

In our school, sports and the arts programs still reign supreme in the extra curricular activities realm. But with that said, this will be the third year that some members (those with at least two years of solid participation) will receive letters. The letters were actually a by-product of a fundamental change that the school accepted three years ago regarding our team and the other academic teams present in the school. The key word here is teams. Up until this time, our team and the other teams (e.g. speech and debate, mock trial, academic decathalon, mathletes, etc.) were treated as clubs. The status change was the result of a concerted effort to try elevate the "status" of the academic teams in order to compete with sports and arts programs. We're not quite on par yet. But, we are working on it. So, my suggestion here is it may help you out if you can develop some stategic allies to work with in order to achieve your goal. There is power in numbers.

[Joe J.]

The way I see it, It depends on how your team/club is registered with the school. 862 is officially a club, thus we are required to have open membership, and are not eligible for Varsity Letters. We do how ever qualify under our school's Academic / Activities Letter program. We also operate like a club with a President, VP, Treasurer, and Secretary instead of a Captain.

Edit I attached the most recent copy of P-CEP's Academic / Activities Letter Requirements I have.

[J Hayashi]

Our school has been giving letters for robotics the past three years. Thanks to our drama department already awarding academic letters, we did not need to go out and make a strong case for robotics.

Like the drama department, letters are awarded at the academics awards night and not at the athletics awards night. It is a separation that seems to make everyone happy.

I have also found that all students enjoy the recognition for lettering, because it shows the work and dedication they have put into robotics. The difference between letter awards and participation awards is huge for many students.

The letter does not seem to be about the jacket. My observation has been that only students who have lettered in sports add the patch to their letter jacket. Students don't seem to have the need to go out and purchase a jacket for robotics.

[Bob Steele]

Our school has no athletics or music programs. Our FIRST robotics team and our Science Olympiad teams ARE our competitive teams.

We have letters on both. There are different requirements but like most athletic programs, lettering is largely decided upon by the coach of each team.
For robotics I (coach) require 2 years of committed service to the team. This honor is given to those that have committed time and effort to developing the team during FIRST season AND during the rest of the year.

FIRST is a 12 month activity. I just wish we had MORE months in the year.
Learning and mentoring never stop.

Our time commitments certainly ebb and flow but we have fundraising, a JV FTC team, Lego League teams to support, an FLL regional to put on, lots of community outreach and team building exercises to help improve our team's abilities to perform both on and off the field.

Our team prides itself on continuous improvement. We are never happy with status quo.

Supporting all of these efforts with hard work and commitment earns a student a letter.

I have coached both academic and athletic teams for a long time.
I have NEVER seen any other team that I have worked with display the consistent high level of quality effort and commitment shown by the Skunks.

I am proud to give them letters and proud to be one of them.

[GoSparx]

To me this seems like the core problem that high schools have with FIRST teams. Some schools just don't give the recognition that FIRST teams should get. If you compare a FIRST team to any sports team, you will find that there is a same commitment level and same basic principles. You train for the season (build and practice your bot), you have time management for games(you have6 weeks to build a bot for events) and you have team work(theres no need to even explain this one!!!). FIRST though is all about taking the spot light off of sports and movie stars and putting more focus on the science and technology leaders of the world. If you feel strongly enough about lettering, then by all means I feel you should try and "fight" this, and by fight I mean research and present your information to the correct people as a gracious professional. Now when it comes to this post:

Originally Posted by David

Number mine
To answer your questions
1. possibly. I know people how spend weeks working on stuff for TSA or science olympiad, but FIRST does require a greater commitment commitment. but some athletics teams require a 12 month commitment that is more demanding than FIRST.
2. Sometimes. NHS is a good example of a club with an application and do you have to apply to be on a team?
3. This number makes no difference. There are teams of 10 (golf or gymnastics) people and teams of 100 (football). As there are clubs of 10 and clubs of 50+

My personal opinion is lettering denotes varsity sport. Since there is no JV and varsity level, members of the robotics team should not get letters. Also, the school can't consider you a team for insurance and other purposes. Insurance companies (actuaries) view a robotics team differently than a football team. Do i support giving awards to members of robotics team for their efforts? Yes. Should this reward be a varsity letter? No.

I couldn't disagree more. On his first (1) point he says that some sports require a 12 month commitment, more demanding than FIRST. Look at the Chairmans Award, FIRST's highest honor. The biggest thing they ask you in the interview is all you a full year team and how. Chairmans winning teams do things year to spread the good word of FIRST and try to expand not just their team, but the entire program itself to it's community and beyond. This seems way harder to me. For number two (2), I do believe an application is necessary, especially when traveling to different regionals and nationals. With costs being so high, you have to make sure your team is really geared up for this sort of thing, you're in it for the long haul!!! Also, lettering is a sign of a team, not of JV or Varsity. These kids put in just as much, if not more, than any football, lacrosse or basketball team. Sure they may not pump iron like sports guys, but they will put in and learn more brain power and learn more than any sports team out there. If the kids want a letter, they deserve it. After putting in so much time to this program to learn so much, that is a much greater reward and life lesson than scoring a touchdown in a football game. LET THEM EAT CAKE!!!

[Molten]

Letters are not the point of FIRST. The point is to learn. Let's the sports people get the lettermen jackets. I'd rather build a bot any day. My suggestion to you? Forget it. That may sound mean, but it is not worth the time or the effort. We are not on robotics to be 'cool' we are here to learn. That letter does not help you learn therefore it has no use in robotics.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by Molten

That letter does not help you learn therefore it has no use in robotics.

It's still nice to be recognized.

In many schools, robotics is considered a "club" and has no significant status. The TechnoKats are fortunate to be a "team", and to receive true support and recognition from the school administration. Being honored by a proclamation from the school board doesn't help the students learn either, but it certainly doesn't hurt.

[Carlee10]

We don't want letters to be "cool", but we do want recognition by our schools. We do put as much time and effort and passion into what we do as any athlete, speech team memeber, mucisian, or any other person does. I am glad that I'm getting a letter for robotics as a senior. I've already got a jacket, for lettering twice already in music, and going to state. I'll also recieve an acedemic competition letter as a senior. That's not the point in competing, and I'm defintely not"cool" for it, but I'm glad I'm getting the recgonition for putting my time, effort, and brainpower into it. It's ok to want to get something extra, after all the work is done and you have extra time on your hands. Just don't be bitter towards sports teams. Think about how insulted you feel when somone says you don't work hard in robotics, or its not important. Every club, sport, team, and association should have the option to create a letter in their school. It just makes sense that way.

*Steps off soapbox*

[SayDeeM8194]

At our school, one can letter for anything, clubs and athletics included. People may purchase letterman jackets for clubs and academics, and in some specific cases, the school will pay for it. In other cases, such as our robotics letters, we pay for the patches that will be put on it (it's all of like $6) and usually our team members already have a jacket to put them on paid for by the school.

[monster1018]

My perspective about this subject is that lettering was originally meant for sports only. In recent years Ive seen people getting letters for band (which i think is wrong), and other activities like that. I think that the letter jackets should be strictly for sports because that's their tradition. We have plenty here at first but we are only an organization (a GREAT organization at that).

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by monster1018

My perspective about this subject is that lettering was originally meant for sports only.

Do you mean to imply that you think FRC is not a sport?